Method for the electronic assembly of printer&#39;s forms

ABSTRACT

In a method for electronic assembly of a printing form with an assembly station, the imposition of pages into a printing form is undertaken with the assembly station, whereby a form PostScript file is generated that contains all data for output of the printing form. Individual PostScript pages are successively stored as a PostScript job in one or more print-to-disk files on the server. The print-to-disk files are loaded into the assembly station via the network. A first form print-to-disk file is generated at the assembly station. This first form print-to-disk file contains include instructions which indicate how the individual pages should be arranged on the printing form and where the individual pages are located within the print-to-disk files, instead of containing the contents of the individual pages of the print-to-disk file or files. The first form PostScript file is transmitted to the server and a second form PostScript file is generated in the server by use of the include instructions. Specifically, using the include instructions, the contents of the pages of the form are called from the print-to-disk files located on the server and are inserted into the first form PostScript file transmitted onto the server from the assembly station at that location at which they are to be located on the printing form. This thus created second form PostScript file is transmitted from the server to the output station for the output of the printing form.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The assembly of the individual pages to form print forms can beimplemented manually or with an assembly station. An assembly station isa "WYSIWIG" picture screen work station (WYSIWIG=what you see is whatyou get), at which a plurality of pages that are present as what arereferred to as PostScript pages are combined into a form under visualcontrol. Structure and general functioning of such a form assemblystation are described in the brochure "Signastation" of Linotype-HellAG, Germany, pages 1 through 8, order number 1292T MDO Lino 001/4d,188-198 FHM. The assembled form is printed as a PostScript document andcontains all information that are required for what is referred to as aprint-conforming output. PostScript is a page description language thatwas developed and introduced into the marketplace by Adobe Systems,Mountainview, Calif., U.S.A., and that has become a world standard. Thispage description language is described, for example, in the manual"PostScript Language Reference Manual", Second Edition, Addison-WesleyPublishing Company, Inc., ISBN 0-201-18127-4. What is involved here is aprogram language executed on what are referred to as RIPs (RIP=rasterimage processor) to which a film exposer, also referred to as recorderor image setter, is connected for outputting the pages onto film. Inthese programs, also referred to as DTP programs (DTP=desktoppublishing), what is referred to as a PostScript job in which aplurality of pages reside in a file following one another is generated.These jobs are also called print-to-disk files and can comprise aplurality of megabytes.

The assembly station is very often operated in combination with a serverwithin an image and text processing system. The server has a number offunctions; among other things, it serves both as a filing system for thePostScript documents to be processed (file server) as a well asreception and output system for forms to be exposed (print server). Theconnection between the assembly station and the server and the remainingcomponents of the image and text processing system occurs via a network,for example Ethernet. In this communication between the assembly stationand the RIP via the server, the individual pages to be imposed areasynchronously compiled on the server into whole PostScript printer'sforms during the interactive imposition process. The data are therebyrepeatedly transmitted over the network. This requires enormous networkresources since data volumes of more than 100 megabytes must betransmitted. This also negatively influences the time behavior of thesystem in a lasting way, and the assembly station is blocked for otherjobs during this time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In a forms assembly station in combination with a server and/or RIP, anobject of the invention is to increase the speed by reducing the networkload and to improve the overall performance behavior of the system.Further, the previous time-consuming, cost-intensive and partlyerror-affected assembly should be implemented in a fast and dependableelectronic process.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is explained in greater detail below with reference toFIGS. 1 through 3.

FIG. 1 shows the page assembly method of the prior art;

FIG. 2 is a schematic execution of the inventive page assembly method ofthe invention; and

FIG. 3 is an illustration of the data flow of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 describes the execution sequence according to the prior art. Asalready initially set forth, the data of the complete PostScript pages,i.e. the print-to-disk jobs, reside on the server as files. The dataflow in the assembly of a printer's form, i.e. the generating of a formPostScript job, is as follows. These pages, i.e. the PostScript documentor, respectively, the print-to-disk job, is loaded into the assemblystation in arrow direction from the server via the network as acorresponding file. The assembly station internally notes what pagesexist and at what positions they lie within the print-to-disk file. Theassembly station does not note the content of the pages since these area matter of files that can comprise several hundred megabytes. In orderto generate a form PostScript job in the assembly station, the assemblystation must thus call the original print-to-disk job, i.e. thecorresponding file, into the assembly station from the server a secondtime in order to clip the part having the pages to be currently built intherefrom and enter them in its own form PostScript job. After theassembly, this form PostScript job is in turn sent back to the printserver function area of the server (printer queue) as a file. The memoryshown at the left side in FIG. 1, in which the PostScript pages arestored, and the memory at the right, in which the PostScript form thatcontains the pages 1,2,3 and 4 is stored, are memory areas of theserver. Overall, the page contents are thus transmitted over the networkthree times, since the connection between assembly station and serveroccurs over the network.

The method of the invention is fundamentally explained below and thendescribed in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

The PostScript pages are transmitted from the memory of the server intothe assembly station. According to the invention, the content of theindividual pages is no longer introduced into the form PostScript job,i.e. into the form PostScript file, in the assembly station; rather,only a respective reference is provided to where the individual pagecontent can be found in the print-to-disk file. The new form PostScriptfile (rump file) generated in this way is then transmitted over thenetwork to the server. This is identified in FIG. 2 with "Comments,Positions, etc.", that are transmitted from the assembly station intothe server. This file is significantly smaller than the file ultimatelygenerated on the server for the exposure. It thus has only a fraction ofthe data of such a form PostScript data generated according to the priorart available to it. The write access of the network to this "rump file"can therefore be neglected in view of a write access to a correspondingform PostScript file that would have been generated according to theprior art.

These references contained in this file are also called includeinstructions. After the transmission of the file onto the server, theinclude instructions are executed in a process sequencing separately onthe server without burdening the network. In the block circuit diagramof FIG. 2, this occurs within the block "Insertion of the OriginalPostScript Data". What the instructions effect is that the correct pagecontents, i.e. the correct parts of the print-to-disk files (PostScriptfiles) that describe the individual pages, are inserted at thecorresponding location of the form PostScript file that had beengenerated by the assembly station. The corresponding page is therebypositioned, i.e. assembled at the desired location within the printer'sform. This process occurs in that part of the server that was initiallyreferred to as print server. The page contents are simply called andcopied into the form PostScript file that had been transmitted into theserver from the assembly station. This is especially simple since bothfiles reside in the server and a direct access of the required data ispossible without the network.

In 5 steps, FIG. 3 shows how this is executed in detail. In step (1),the PostScript documents are transmitted from the server, i.e. from thefile server, into the assembly station, which is also called workstation. As already mentioned, the PostScript documents to be processedare usually multi-page, also always whenever work is being carried outwith color, i.e. when chromatic images are processed, since a pluralityof color separations are required for the reproduction of a color image.In order to be able to execute the process described above, the incomingPostScript documents--since individual pages are required for theimposition--are analyzed within the assembly station in a simple sortingprocess such the location of each and every page within the originalfile is identified and stored. Each page can be designationally calledor addressed with this information. The storing of these data occurs ina list that is also called Job Info List. This list thus contains thereferences or addresses under which the individual pages can be foundwithin the original document. Such a job info list is presented belowfor a simple PostScript document.

    ______________________________________                                        ***********************************************************                   ** List of Detected PageElements                                              ***********************************************************                   No.  Type          Index  Offset Length                                                                              Page No.                               ______________________________________                                        0    HEADER        100    0      35325 0                                      1    PROLOG        101    135632 435520                                                                              0                                      2    DOCSETUP      102    571152 28963 0                                      3    PAGEELEMENT   103    600115 600339                                                                              1                                      4    INSERTIONPOINT                                                                              2      600339 100   1                                      5    OTHERELEMENT  3      600439 71    1                                      6    PAGEELEMENT   103    600510 31934 1                                      7    PAGEELEMENT   103    63244  224   2                                      8    INSERTIONPOINT                                                                              2      632668 60    2                                      9    OTHERELEMENT  3      632728 92    2                                      10   PAGEELEMENT   103    632820 31938                                        11   PAGEELEMENT   103    664758 224   3                                      12   INSERTIONPOINT                                                                              2      664982 300   3                                      13   OTHERELEMENT  3      665282 95    3                                      14   PAGEELEMENT   103    665377 95    3                                      15   OTHERELEMENT  3      665472 93    3                                      16   PAGEELEMENT   103    665565 169   3                                      17   PAGEELEMENT   103    665734 224   4                                      18   INSERTIONPOINT                                                                              2      665958 247   4                                      19   OTHERELEMENT  3      666205 92    4                                      20   PAGEELEMENT   103    666297 61    4                                      21   OTHERELEMENT  3      666358 92    4                                      22   PAGEELEMENT   103    666450 226   4                                      ______________________________________                                         BoundingBox(1 b r t): 0.000000 0.000000 595.000000 792.000000            

On the basis of this Job Info List, it is now possible todesignationally address specific pages in the PostScript document andinsert them into the output job. In step (2), a rump file is generatedwithin the assembly station with the assistance of this Job Info List,this rump file being transmitted into the print server region of theserver in step (3). As already mentioned, only these references aboutthe location of the pages within the original PostScript file have beenaccepted into this rump file, so that it is possible to construct theentire PostScript form in the print server on the basis of this rumpfile.

The following list shows an example of such a rump file. All lines thatbegin with the character sequence "%%LMInclude:" contain a file name, anoffset and a length with the assistance of which the complete print jobcan be produced according to the invention.

    ______________________________________                                        %|PS-Adobe-2.0                                                                %%Title: x                                                                    %%Creator: LinoMontage                                                        %%CreationDate:Mon Aug 22 14:51:30 1994                                       %%For: pierre                                                                 %%Pages: 1 1                                                                  %%BoundingBox: 0.000000 0.000000 842.000000 595.000000                        %%PrintMode: PROOF                                                            %%Orientation: Landscape                                                      %%EndComments                                                                 userdict/LinoMontageSaveDict 3 dict def                                       LinoMontageSaveDict begin                                                     /LM.sub.-- sigsavefHLinoMontageSaveDict/LM.sub.-- SIGSAVE save put) def       /LM.sub.-- sigrestore ( clearHLinoMontageSaveDict/LM.sub.-- SIGSAVE get       restore )def end                                                              //LinoMontageSaveDict/LM.sub.-- sigsave get exec                              %%BeginProlog                                                                 . .                                                                           . .                                                                           %%EndProlog                                                                   %%BeginDocumentSetup                                                          //LinoMontageDict/LM.sub.-- Reset get exec                                    %+ Document Supplied Fonts                                                    %%LM.sub.-- EndDocumentSetup                                                  %%.sub.-- LM.sub.-- Page: 1 1                                                 %%Information for potentielle Farbmarke                                       //LinoMontageDict /LM.sub.-- ColorCount 1 put                                 %BeginApplication: 1                                                          %%ApplicationDocument:                                                        /Net/nxserv/PostScriptPooI/Code/QuarkMac/Quark3.3.sub.-- Mac/X                P3.3.sub.-- LW8.ps                                                            //LinoMontageDict/LM.sub.-- SaveApplication get exec                          //LinoMontageDict/LM.sub.-- Reset get exec                                    %%BeginApplicationProlog:                                                     %+ Reencode Fonts                                                             %%EndApplicationProlog:                                                       %%BeginElement: 1                                                             (1)                                                                           //LinoMontageDict/LM.sub.-- SaveElement get exec                              %%BeginElementSetup                                                           //LinoMontageDict/LM.sub.-- Reset get exec                                    //LinoMontageDict/LM.sub.-- RestoreState get exec                             44.994377                                                                              44.994377 639.994385 836.994385                                      44.994377                                                                              44.994377 639.994385 836.994385                                      0.000000 1.000000 1.000000                                                    //LinoMontageDict/LM.sub.-- SetElementSystem get exec                         %%EndElementSetup                                                             %+Application DocumentSetup                                                   %%LMInclude:                                                                  /Net/nxserv/PostscriptPool/Code/QuarkMac/Quark3.3.sub.-- Mac/X                P3.3.sub.-- LW8.ps                                                            571152 28963                                                                  %+ Application Page                                                           %%LMInclude:                                                                  /Net/nxserv/PostScriptPool/Code/QuarkMac/Quark3.3.sub.-- M                    ac/XP3.3.sub.-- LW8.ps 600115 224                                             %%LMInclude:                                                                  /Net/nxserv/PostScriptPool/Code/QuarkMac/Quark3.3.sub.-- M                    ac/XP3.3.sub.-- LW8.ps                                                        600439 71                                                                     %%LMInclude:                                                                  /Net/nxserv/PostScriptPool/Code/QuarkMac/Quark3.3 Mac/                        XP3.3.sub.-- LW8.ps                                                           632728 92                                                                     %%LMinclude:                                                                  /Net/nxserv/PostScriptPool/Code/QuarkMac/Quark3.3 Mac/                        XP3.3.sub.-- LW8.ps                                                           665282 95                                                                     %%LMInclude:                                                                  /Net/nxserv/PostScriptPool/Code/QuarkMac/Quark3.3.sub.-- Mac/                 XP3.3.sub.-- LW8.ps                                                           665472 93                                                                     %%LMInclude:                                                                  /Net/nxserv/PostScriptPool/Code/QuarkMac/Quark3.3.sub.-- Mac/                 XP3.3.sub.-- LWB.ps                                                           666205 92                                                                     %%LMInclude:                                                                  /Net/nxserv/PostScriptPool/Code/QuarkMac/Quark3.3.sub.-- Mac/                 XP3.3.sub.-- LW8.ps                                                           666358 92                                                                     %%LMInclude:                                                                  /Net/nxserv/PostScriptPool/Code/QuarkMac/Quark3.3.sub.-- Mac/                 XP3.3.sub.-- LW8.ps                                                           600339 100                                                                    %%LMDeleted                                                                   %%LMInclude:                                                                  /Net/nxserv/PostScriptPool/Code/QuarkMac/Quark3.3.sub.-- Mac/                 XP3.3.sub.-- LW8.ps                                                           600510 31934                                                                  %+ Application Trailer                                                        //LinoMontageDict/LM.sub.-- ClearState get exec                               //LinoMontageDict/LM.sub.-- RestoreElement get exec                           %%EndElement: 1                                                               //LinoMontageDict/LM.sub.-- RestoreApplication get exec                       %%ApplicationDocument:                                                        /Net/nxserv/PostScriptPool/Code/QuarkMac/Quark3.3.sub.-- Mac/                 XP3.3.sub.-- LW8.ps                                                           %%EndApplication: 1                                                           %+ Marks for Element : 1                                                      %%Trailer                                                                     //LinoMontageDict/LM.sub.-- old.sub.-- showpage get exec                      %%Ende Ausgabe der Signatur                                                   //LinoMontageDict/LM.sub.-- Endsignature get exec                             //LinoMontageSaveDict/LM.sub.-- sigrestore get exec                           %%Title: x                                                                    %%Creator; SignaStation                                                       %%CreationDate:Mon Aug 22 14:51:30 1994                                       %%For: pierre                                                                 %%BeginTrailerLOC                                                             %%EndTrailerLOC                                                               ______________________________________                                    

The method of the invention is also referenced "Remote Page Including"(RPI), whereby "Remote Page Including" means that the PostScript dataare not inserted into the document to be output to the exposer in theassembly station, but on the server.

A great advantage of this method is that the data need be copied onlyonce via the network, as a result whereof network and time behavior arepositively influenced and network capacity becomes free for otherprocesses.

Although various minor changes and modifications might be proposed bythose skilled in the art, it will be understood that our wish is toinclude within the claims of the patent warranted hereon all suchchanges and modifications as reasonably come within our contribution tothe art.

We claim as out invention:
 1. A method for electronic assembly of aprinting form with a work station designed as an assembly station, theassembly station being connected to a server via a network, comprisingthe steps of:successively storing individual PostScript pages as aPostScript job in one or more print-to-disk files on the server; loadingthe one or more print-to-disk files into the assembly station via thenetwork, the assembly station storing which pages are present and whichpositions the individual pages have within the corresponding one or moreprint-to-disk files; in the assembly station, creating a firstPostScript data file which contains include instructions but does notcontain contents of the individual pages of the print-to-disk datafiles, said include instructions indicating where the individual pagesare to be arranged on the printing form to be created and where theindividual pages are located within the one or more print-to-disk files;transferring the first PostScript data file to the server via thenetwork; in the server, creating a second PostScript data file from thefirst PostScript data file by use of the include instructions whereincontents of the pages of the printing form to be created are called upfrom the one or more print-to-disk files located on the server andinserting the contents of the pages into the first PostScript data fileat the place where they are to be arranged on the printing form; andtransferring the second PostScript data file from the server to anoutput station for the output of the printing form.
 2. The methodaccording to claim 1 including the steps of providing the server as afile server and a print server, the file server storing the individualPostScript pages as the PostScript job in said one or more print-to-diskfiles, and said print server creating the second PostScript data fileand outputting it to the output station.